Welfare, Not Work: Obama Shuts Down Minority Business Agency

Hosannas. Obama has finally cut some federal spending. But noting which agency he shut down is sort of emblematic of his whole welfare/big government-pushing presidency.

On Friday, the Department of Commerce announced that it would be shutting down all five regional offices of the Minority Business Development Agency, an agency that was created by Richard Nixon to help develop minority businesses.

The administration claims that it will be saving around $30 million per year by eliminating the offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush is not too happy about the decision.

“It sends the wrong message to entrepreneurs and businesses in our community at this time when we need to have an expansion,” Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) said. Rush offered legislation to increase funding to the Minority Business Development Agency.

“This is message administrating, message management and message politics. It doesn’t have anything to do with the bottom line. The best message is one of expansion of the MBDA so it can do its work and meet its mission on the ground level and on the local level on the front line,” Rush added. Rush added that he has had a great working relationship with the regional office in Chicago.

Lauren Victoria Burke reports that several other minority congressmen, including Florida Congressman Allan West, were just as unhappy as Rep. Rush.

Lots of annoyed congressmen, to be sure. Still, doesn’t this just seem to fit the Obama administration to a tee? Eliminating business oriented initiatives yet expanding on his welfare oriented ideas? They don’t call Obama the “food stamp president” for nothing, after all.

So, to what effect is Obama’s enlarged “war on poverty”? The Heritage Foundation thinks Congress should start asking questions.

Congress should ask pointed questions about why the war on poverty continues to escalate more than four decades after it began. The Obama Administration’s expansion of the welfare state, in combination with its effort to define poverty up, does not bode well for economic freedom in the United States.

The so-called war on poverty has failed, yet Obama wants to use money that might have gone to business-lifting agencies like the Minority Business Development Agency and put good money after bad.

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, BigJournalsim.com and all Breitbart News' other sites, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, and many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country to discuss his opinion editorials and current events as well as appearing on TV networks such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and various Chicago-based news programs.
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